Category: Real Personal History
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Good-bye Rosie
[Rosie. Photo is mine.] My mother passed away in her sleep on a quiet Easter Sunday morning in 1992. A sad event indeed. Just days before on Holy Thursday, she sat in the living room of our home and told the priest that she was tired and was prepared. She was ready. She also told…
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A Cemetery With a View
[The grave of Sa Sa Na Loft. Evergreen Cemetery, Owego, NY. Photo credit is my own.] I’m back in my home town of Owego, NY for a reason. I have no one to visit. Nothing to purchase (I did buy two books at River Row Book Store), but I was there on an early September…
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There Must be a Story Here
[From my Instagram post. A Year or two ago.] For those of my followers who track my movements or care where I am at any given time, here’s some help: I’m not wandering the forests of the North Country at this time. I’m in New York City for the usual doctors appointments, Mariam’s meetings and…
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A Sad Good-bye
[“Old Paint”. Now a part of history…ready for its final ride] The white Casier truck backed down our driveway. It was 10:30 on a muggy morning. Before ten minutes had passed, we had brand new chairs in our living room. The old L. L. Bean pair of overstuffed sofa-like seats were showing signs of aging.…
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I Too Can Do Physical Labor
[Me on the steps…working hard.] As a blogger I get tons of mail. It’s mostly fan letters, notes of congratulations, invitations to weddings, birthday parties, fundraisers, dedications at mall openings and the occasional bris. But I also get questions. “Gee, Pat (I’m an informal kind of guy), what do you do when you’re not working…
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Languid June
[Languid June As Seen From Our Back Deck.] Languid June. Languid June. The name has a certain ring to it. Like Lay Down Sally, Calamity Jane, Black-Eyed Susan, Axis Sally, Typhoid Mary and Moaning Myrtle. I chose the title of this post with care. I do believe that I saw a Sad-Eyed Lady at the corner…
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Late Night Thoughts on Thumb Twiddling
[Mariam in the act of thumb twiddling. Photo credit: Me] Twiddle. (v) To wait idly because one cannot take action. Not that many weeks ago I found myself behind the wheel of an Avis Rent Car. I had set the cruise control at 71 mph. We were heading north out of Albany, coming home from…
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The Robin’s Nest
[The nest after being moved from the lamp] [American Robin: Turdus migratorius.] I’m sure it was a Robin’s nest. Every time Mariam or I would use the front deck entrance (with a screen door that slammed louder than the front gate of Alcatraz), a bird with a rusty breast would scold us from a nearby branch…
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Staring Down at 72
[A post card image from Inkognito.] As I write this post the weather here at Rainbow Lake is unsettled. Windy with thunder in the distance. I fell asleep in the screened-in porch last night listening to heavy rains falling. I’m staring at a calendar (The kitchen wall calendar…this year: Japanese prints). I see that I…
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My Friend Tim
[Left to right: Jo, Anna, Tim at the White Lion Inn on our last night in Dorset] It was August of 1984. I was about to begin a year in Dorset, England, when I first met Tim Ovenden. He was destined to be my house-mate in Wimborne Minster (actually a burb of Wimborne, Colehill). He…
